The First Celebrity Serial Killer in Southwest Ohio: Confessions of the Strangler Alfred Knapp

Just before Christmas 1902, Alfred Knapp strangled his wife in her sleep. He put her body in a box and sent the box floating down the Great Miami River, telling everyone that Hannah had left him. When the truth came out, Knapp confessed to four other murders. Newspapers across the Midwest sent reporters to interview the handsome strangler. Despite spending most of his adulthood in prison, he had a charming, boyish manner that made him an instant celebrity serial killer. True crime historian Richard O Jones examines the strangler's alleged crimes, the family drama of covering up Knapp's atrocities and how a brain-damaged drifter became a media darling.

Richard O Jones is a published true crime writer, a board member of the Butler County Historical Society, and host of the history series "Yesterday's News" at Miami University, Ohio. A Hamilton, Ohio native, Mr. Jones worked as a writer and editor for the Hamilton Journal-News for twenty-five years and was a creative writing graduate of Miami University, Ohio. He has been awarded several professional honors including feature writer of the year by the Ohio Associated Press in 2011.